it's truly life-changing. (man) register today for the... and receive $25 off your registration fee. because everyone deserves a lifetime. tonight here in cairo, a big change. a crackdown by street gangs. there has been violence and gunfire, an ugly turn in the struggle for control of the world's largest arab nation. our team is on the ground and in place for our coverage tonight. we'll also have the biggest story across the u.s. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good evening.

once again from cairo, where today the atmosphere suddenly turned sour and toxic and is still disintegrating tonight, turning into a rock and molotov cocktail fight with open fires burning in front of the museum where 5,000 years of egyptian history is housed. it started unusually, the day did, with new groups of protesters in different clusters we hadn't seen before. it was readily apparent they were supporting hosni mubarak. it became clear later many of them were gangs of street thugs assembled for the occasion. some of them came in on horses, some of them came in on camels. and they were insurgents cutting through the lines of protesters who camped out and staked their home in the city square for days, making an inroad for the other side of this protest. tonight the night air is still on occasion crackling with

gunfire from automatic weapons, small caliber and large. they have turned that square into an open human combat space. the number of injured starts conservative -- see a lot from the fight with the light of day. bordering on that square, not far from our location here tonight, we can candidly smell the smoke from the fires here. our own richard engle has been covering it all day with us. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. clashes are continuing between protesters and supporters of president mubarak. here in tahrir square, fires have broken out as the two sides exchanged molotov cocktails. for now it appears the protesters have the upper hand. president mubarak proved he will not go down without a fight. egypt ordered a crackdown against anti-government demonstrators, but not with

troops, tanks or uniformed police. instead, it sent in goon squads disguised as supporters of president mubarak. it was immediately clear these were not demonstrators. thousands of mubarak supporters charged into cairo's tahrir square. the protesters unarmed were caught off guard by the surprise attack. the pro-mubarak demonstrators rushed the protesters on horseback. and with camels. the protesters fought back, ripping mubarak supporters out of their saddles. hand-to-hand fighting broke out. the protesters claim many of the pro-mubarak supporters were in fact policemen. some were reportedly caught carrying police i.d. others appear to have been the same enforcers president mubarak has often used to stuff ballot boxes and forge elections. this time mubarak used the mobs to save his presidency. by midday, tahrir square was a front line.

the two sides battled with bricks, stones, even their fists. the egyptian army did not intervene. it fired tear gas and warning shots, but mostly just watched and appealed for calm. the goon squads also appeared to have orders to hunt journalists. they chased us down. >> the clashes have started to spread outside of tahrir square. there is also a lot of angry people who are angry with journalists. >> reporter: the government claims it didn't send any mobs to attack the protesters who want mubarak to leave the country, but that seems implausible and the protesters don't believe it. they arrived in coordinated groups and seemed to have a single mission to attack. they were using military-style tactics to seal off the square. the anti-government protesters are now trapped in the center of tahrir. mubarak supporters have moved in by the thousands to seal off all four corners of the square. they have been moving toward the center.

that's where the heaviest clashes have been. we've seen molotov cocktails, and both sides are dropping firebombs from the rooftops onto the crowds below. in the darkness the two sides battled to take control of tahrir and its side streets. using barricades to inch forward in the square, they fought with molotov cocktails, an all-out street war. president mubarak may have signaled the crackdown last night. in a televised speech, he said egyptians had to choose between chaos and stability. today mubarak's choice was clear. a crackdown disguised as a counterprotest. protest leaders, brian, we have spoken to from the middle of that battle say they would rather die than surrender. brian. >> now, richard, this turned on a dime. this went toxic so quickly today, looking back i don't know if there was one moment, but looking back one day, it's almost comical a piece of

videotape we aired on the broadcast last night. you and i walking through the plaza, we were given a cursory security check by civilians. it was kind of an open air, boyant atmosphere. people had set up businesses. now if we'd make that same walk we'd be in the middle of this urban combat zone. what did we witness today? what happened? >> this will probably be remembered as a turning point in egyptian history. if the protesters win, they believe they will win egypt. if they lose, they say they will continue this fight and organize more protests. it was relatively calm even in the morning today. there were a lot of families in the square. they weren't planning on having a big demonstration and then suddenly starting just with the few thousand, the pro-mubarak supporters arrived in a coordinated effort. some of them arrived on buses and then throughout the day they were building and building and their strength grew. but now there aren't very many of the pro-government

demonstrators still in the square and the protesters seem to be gaining ground and have broken out of that encirclement, that barricade that they had before. >> yesterday it seemed like every egyptian in the square wanted to be on camera. today those we encountered wanted to take our cameras. lester holt is with us. lester, you were out doing a story on the americans who decided to stay trying to prove to you how safe it is to be here when you ran into just one prong of this just starting. >> i did an interview with an american woman who's lived here a long time and feels safe. we decided to go to her neighborhood and car. we turned a corner and there are a bunch of mubarak supporters. the car stops. a person gets out and suddenly we get an argument. our car is trapped. we get out and no big deal. as we continue the rest of the day we see more of these groups. you talk about turning on a dime, it's whiplash. suddenly you feel everything has changed and then trying to get over here, we get the warning getting back to home base that it's not safe.

i talked to some british journalists who were held for four hours today hooded, tied and questioned, interrogated because someone saw them with a camera. we couldn't get back in. we ended up taking a boat across the nile to avoid having to walk through the crowds. below our location was the main ingress route for the mubarak supporters. >> and so much gunfire here in the city tonight, you and i were running to the window to look at it. automatic weapons fire, varying caliber. lester holt, richard engle, part of our team on the ground. i spoke with one senior administration official tonight. with this changing so fast and in such a toxic direction here that it was too much for us to keep up with, imagine what it's like to monitor at the white house. savannah guthrie has been watching that all day. savannah, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this is a combustible situation, as you well know. aides here are privately turning up the heat on president mubarak.

president obama told mubarak he has to move quickly. people here do not think he can hang on until september. their primary goal is to see this situation in egypt stabilize and no one thinks that can happen with mubarak still in power, but publicly they're still walking this very fine line. we saw the press secretary, robert gibbs today, stop short of saying that the president had told mubarak directly last night leave office now. >> i'm not going to get into flushing out some of the very specifics of the conversation that was had. i think progress and change must come to cairo. progress and change must come to egypt and it needs to happen quickly. >> i do not think the president could have been clear with the president of egypt last night. >> reporter: and there are ongoing conversations at all levels of the u.s. government with egyptian officials leaning on mubarak to make this move, the transition to a new leader as the white house likes to say. but they don't want to publicly

humiliate this long-time u.s. ally. as one senior aide said to me here today, there are a lot of audiences, including other allies in the middle east who are very, very uneasy. one other note, brian, they have said that the u.s. has gotten assurances from the egyptian military that they will not turn violent on the protesters. back to you. >> savannah guthrie at the white house tonight. savannah, thanks. richard engle had it right a minute ago when he said this is a fight for egypt. a fight to take egypt or a fight to hold it. the fight is not just going on here in cairo. to the north, the mouth of the nile in alexandria, known in shorthand and to english-speaking folks simply as alex, they have had in some cases bigger crowds than they have had here in cairo. well, it turned rotten quickly there today. our own ron allen standing by with his report from alexandria. ron, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. alexandria for the most part was spared the violence that you

experienced down there in cairo, but this is still a very tense place on edge. a lot of hostility, anger and emotion in the air and there are many indications that this could be the next flashpoint. this is what happened as soon as we arrived here. an encounter with hundreds of supporters of president mubarak. they turned on us, blaming the foreign media for not telling their side of the story. the president should never step down, they yelled and screamed. we turned off our camera and fled. the trip here this morning, three hours down a main highway, had taken us far from the protests in cairo. few trucks and buses on the road. no one going to work. all signs of how the crisis has brought this nation and its already struggling economy to a halt. we came to alexandria usually a popular tourist destination because of scenes like this here last night. tanks separating rival

demonstrators after president mubarak's speech promising more democracy. >> what did you think of what the president had to say? >> i don't think i cry. he never think about us. >> reporter: the violence in cairo stoked passions here. thousands marching through town. there's no central square big enough to contain them. it was a death in alexandria last june that helped ignite these nationwide protests. a 28-year-old blogger died in police custody, beaten and tortured, his family claims. revenge for writing about alleged police corruption and brutality. now the fury has spread across egypt, to luxor, home to many ancient treasures, to suez and its famous canal, and here in alexandria. so many determined to change a nation. this mother said she was ready to face a government crackdown. >> will you keep coming out every day?

>> yes, of course. till he go. unless they killed us, we are here. >> reporter: a lot of passion. there's been violence and bloodshed here during the early days of the protest. now about a week ago. and like in cairo, there are a lot of arms everywhere. everybody seems to have a weapon. drive through the streets and you can see people brandishing clubs, sticks and knives. for that reason a lot of reporters here have been keeping a very low profile. brian. >> all right, you do so as well, ron allen, stay safe there in alexandria, as we've urged all the members of our team here on the ground in cairo. and you know how we've been reporting that this kind of people's uprising, especially against long-term leaders could be a contagion in this region. well, in yemen today, the president there for 30 years announced, and if this sounds familiar look around here in egypt, announced he will not be standing for re-election there.

you'll recall the king of jordan yesterday preemptively dissolved his own government. so the yemeni president not running again, promising not to install his son in office. a big issue here in egypt. our coverage from this region will continue later on the broadcast when we hear from a 76-year-old woman from america trapped in her apartment here in cairo. but soon after this break, we'll go back to the u.s. the big story across the country. we'll introduce you to the winter storm our own al roker called the largest geographical weather-making event in recent history.

back here in cairo, now as promised right back to the united states where the biggest news maker today was the biggest winter weather maker, the biggest blizzard of its kind in years. 30 states in all touched by this

one from new mexico in the southwest all the way to maine in the northeast. before it's over, over 100 million americans affected, some of them blizzard conditions. we're talking two feet of snow plus in places like chicago, where nbc's kevin tibbles is heading up our coverage there tonight. kevin, good evening. >> reporter: brian, it was a band of snow and ice that stretched on 2500 miles, paralyzing travel, stranding people in their cars, and pummelling anyone who dared venture outdoors. a harrowing 24 hours of wind and whiteouts. one of the hardest hit cities, chicago, where 20 inches of snow brought the windy city to its knees. >> wind gusts were between 60 and 70 miles an hour and visibility was at whiteout conditions. >> reporter: headlines blared a nation's frustration. "snow daze," says one chicago paper. "we're on ice" in indianapolis. "enough already" from peoria.

in boston, simply "uncle." the national weather center called it crippling. anyone who dared to be out had to hang on for dear life. hundreds of vehicles trapped in whiteout conditions along chicago's lakeshore drive. drivers spending some 15 hours going nowhere. the chicago fire department even used snowmobiles to reach stranded motorists. airports remained deserted. nationwide this storm has forced the cancellation of close to 14,000 flights. in dallas, freezing temperatures just days before the super bowl. in salem, new hampshire, cars tossed like toys as snow and ice glazed the northeast. >> i'm peter alexander in boston. after a day with a punishing winter mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain, the concern across much of the northeast this evening is ice. already slushy roads are beginning to freeze, and snow is soaking up rain like a sponge, raising the risk of collapsing roofs. >> reporter: but in the midst of

a winter wallop, a certain pennsylvania groundhog wandered out in search of his shadow. the verdict. >> so an early spring it will be! >> reporter: but for now, it's still winter, and folks will do whatever it takes to get through it all. and today for the first time since 1999, chicago public schools were closed. they'll be closed again tomorrow. what's next? well, just plummeting temperatures and dangerous windchills. brian, let's just hope that groundhog got it right. >> absolutely. we're rooting for punxsutawney phil. what an unbelievable winter of 2011 so far. kevin tibbles in chicago. thanks. when we come back, we'll go to australia with what they're dealing with tonight on top of the disaster they have been dealing with already.

back here in cairo, we go quickly now to australia. one of the great places on earth where they're having some of their worst times in memory. this time it's a hurricane, a 200-mile-an-hour category 5 katrina-style hurricane named yasi. they're known, of course, in that part of the world as cyclones, but by any other name this is a disaster on top of the flooding they have had this in the queensland district, as correspondent michelle tapper reports for us tonight.

>> reporter: brian, well, it's been a frightening night here. we prepared for the biggest cyclone ever to hit the australian coast. it arrived around 10:00 last night and it was truly frightening, the sound of it. it sounded like a freight train coming through your room. there are several evacuation centers through town. most of them lost power from around 9:00 last night and i'm told a woman is currently in labor about to give birth in one of them. now, dawn is breaking here this morning. the cyclone has been downgraded. still lots of debris on the roads, lots of trees, lots of rubbish, pieces of metal. people are being warned to stay indoors until police give the okay. but at this point it does appear that we have been spared the worst of this truly terrifying category 5 cyclone. >> michelle, thanks. a correspondent for our affiliated network channel 7 in australia.

quickly we want to update another major story we've been following for weeks here, an update on the condition of arizona congresswoman gabby giffords. her husband, the astronaut, mark kelly, put out on his twitter account today, quote, today was a huge day for gg. lots of progress. we have no more specifics, but we'll hope that means just that, the very best, as she continues to recover from that gunshot wound. we'll take another break here in cairo. we'll return with one of the true dramas playing out during this eroding situation here in egypt today.

relief for a family call the up in a health care showdown. why their sick child was forced to stay in the hospital. and the empire strikes back. leasheunew n technology setting up a tablet war. finally here tonight, we heard from a viewer of ours today, contacted us because he said his mother is trapped in her apartment here and is in trouble. her name, mary thornberry. originally from ft. worth, texas. she moved here years ago to study ancient egyptian history. 76 years old. has an apartment on the square. normally terrific real estate, except when it's been turned over to the protests. mary told us when we called her by phone she knew she was in trouble when 12 men came to her apartment, broke the glass in her front door.

>> when he broke the glass, he reached his hand in and was attempting to take the key out of my door so he could get in. i managed to get that and i now have my key on my body. since then, about every five minutes or so, they would be yelling, ringing the doorbell, beating on the door, so that's what's been going on the last 20 minutes or so it's been much calmer. i think they're trying to get a little sleep. i figured they would sleep in the hallway for the night so they won't be out in the cold. >> how worried are you about your safety? >> i have a sharp knife. i have hot water. i have my walking cane and i have my rolling pin, so that's my armory. i really don't want to leave because the place will be vandalized, and it's my home. i just wish someone would come and take these thugs away and let me go on with my life.

i have nobody but myself. i don't have a spouse, i don't have an employer, i don't have any institution backing me. >> she's going to defend herself. one of many dramas playing out here. we'll keep you updated. on behalf of our team here on the ground in cairo, i'm brian williams. we'll look for you tomorrow evening. for all of us here, good night. good evening, everyone. i'm tom sinkovitz. >> and i'm jessica -- home at last. that's what a south bay family is saying after what they called a nightmare with the health care system. their toddlers was ready to go home weeks ago, but red tape kept the family in limbo, forcing the boy to state in the hospital.